How Soon Is Now?
by wintersayshi
Summary: The DiNozzo siblings had been estranged for a long time, they hadn't seen each other in years and the only time they spoke to one another was once a year to make sure they were both still alive. So imagine Tony's surpise when his sister Amelia turns up?
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't often that Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo thought that the universe was punishing him for something that he didn't deserve but today was one of those rare days. Tony's day had started off rather well, he had gotten in a good work out before he came to work, harmlessly teased McProbie for a few minutes until he got the phone call that ruined his day. Angrily slamming his phone back down on the receiver, Tony quickly went about straightening up his desk in a hurried manner, shoving case files into his desk drawers, discarding candy papers into his waste bin and throwing the paper balls that cluttered his desk over to McGee. This was the last thing Tony needed in his life right now and he couldn't help but grumble in annoyance as he continued to clean up his desk, making sure that everything looked pristine and not even a millimetre out of his place. Tony would much rather to have the plague again and come close to dying again instead of having to deal with this problem.

"Problem Tony?" McGee asked and Tony looked up briefly to see that McGee and Ziva were looking at him in bemusement over this entire thing as it was rare for, a fine calibre such of himself to be worked up to the point he was actively cleaning his desk because of a female coming up to the bullpen see him. Not that any of this was funny in the slightest given who was coming to see him.

"Not that it's any of your business _Probie_, but I just got a call from security telling me that my sister is here and now on her way up to see me for god knows what reason." Tony stated in an annoyed tone of manner with a frown on his face as he stood up and straightened out his suit and tie before sitting back down. It had been years since Tony had seen his sister and he couldn't help but wonder why on earth she was suddenly here of all places. Whatever the reason, it couldn't be good. It never was when it came to the Little DiNozzo as Tony used to call his sister when she was a small child and still tolerable.

"Sister? You have a sister? You told us that you were an only child!" Ziva demanded in shock and Tony pulled a sheepishly embarrassed expression. So he had lied about being an only child but in Tony's defence, he had done it for a good reason as him and his sister were pretty much estranged and both of them were content in living separate lives away from each other. The DiNozzo siblings had a difficult relationship and so to save explaining all the childhood issues, Tony found it easier to just say that he was an only child. Technically in a round about way, he was an only child. He was the only child born to his mother and father.

"Amelia is my half-sister on my dad's side from his second marriage and when I told you all that I was an only child, it was wishful thinking on my part and when you think about it in an abstract kind of way it is more or less true considering that we hardly ever speak or see each other." Tony attempted to explain and from where he sat he could see McGee roll his eyes unsurprised that he would lie about such a thing whilst Ziva on the other hand? Seemed to be more annoyed at this little white lie, well she was more liked pissed off about it.

"Unbelievable Tony… Pretending that your sister doesn't even exist, I actually feel sorry for the girl for having you as a brother. Why on earth would you let everyone believe that you were an only child? I can't believe that you've been lying to us about this for years!" Ziva admonished and Tony for some reason allowed himself to chuckle at this lecture, he wouldn't have expected anything less from the mossad officer.

"Trust me I had reasons, my sister is no angel and she's not exactly forthcoming with the fact that she has an older brother..." Tony replied stopping short when the doors to the elevator pinged open and out walked a familiar tall woman with dark hair and blue eyes dressed in very expensive clothing. _Amelia._ Tony would recognize his sister anywhere and he watched as his sister looked around the bullpen until her eyes met his. Tony ignored Ziva and McGee's questions about why he was acting so weird as his sister made her way over and stopped right in front of his desk. Tony looked at his baby sister, Amelia looked a lot older than he remembered but that was a given since it had been a while since they had seen each other. But it wasn't just that, Amelia looked more older and tired than Tony had ever known her to be. It made him even more suspicious as to why Amelia had turned up here out of the blue with no warning in the slightest. "Amelia."

"Anthony."

"I see you're still alive."

"Right back at you." Amelia replied using the same amount of enthusiasm or rather lack if it that he was giving her. The frosty reception was nothing new for Tony as him and Amelia had been acting like that towards each other for the past fourteen years and he doubted that either of them were going to change that now. The two of them were two stubborn old mules stuck in their ways as their father used to say. Ever aware of his colleagues staring at the encountered unfolding right in front of their eyes, Tony knew he was going to have to make introductions before Ziva or McGee did it for him.

"Ziva David, Timothy McGee this is my sister Amelia DiNozzo." Tony began gritting his teeth together as he began making introductions, the sooner he got this over the sonner he could see what Amelia wanted and then have her back on her way. "Mia, there are my co-workers."

"It's a pleasure to meet the two of you, I'm afraid to say that Tony hasn't mentioned you but my brother does speak very highly of NCIS and how much he enjoys working here." Amelia warmly greeted with a small smile and Tony couldn't help but scoff as he rolled his eyes, Mia could be greeting him with contempt one second and then the next, make niceties with his co-workers and be so charming that butter wouldn't melt.

"What are you doing here Mia?" Tony asked moving things along before McGee would inevitably ask to talk a walk down the DiNozzo family lane and then get Ziva on the bandwagon. Tony was fine with them knowing a few titbits of his personal life and childhood but he didn't want them to know his entire life story. There were things about his life that Tony liked to keep private and he noted the irony of that given that he had no understanding of the word boundaries when it come to other people's private lives.

"We need to talk Tony." Amelia responded after a moment.

"And you couldn't call or email? You just had to fly in all the way from New York and come down to where I work in order to speak to me, why?" Tony asked as this was out of the character for his sister, the last time they had seen each other Tony could vividly remember Mia saying that she never wanted to see him again. Well that was a bit of a lie as Mia actually screamed at him that she never wanted to see him again, chucking a vase at him in the process. Just thinking about that encounter made Tony wince as that vase had come very close to hitting him.

"I've tried calling you Tony, several times but not once did you call me back or answer any of my emails and I couldn't show up at your apartment as neither of us know where the other lives. The only place I knew that I could find you other than a strip joint was here and unlike you I wouldn't lower my standards to enter that kind of establishment so I had to come here." Amelia replied with a flicker of annoyance before pausing to take a deep breath. "This is the last place that I want to be but I need your help."

"The great Amelia DiNozzo needs my help? I thought you said that you never needed or wanted anything from me ever again? So why come to me of all people Mia? I'm pretty sure that we both made ourselves pretty clear the last time we saw each other " Tony questioned in a rather irritated manner, it was typical for his sister to come waltzing back into his life and messing it up when he was onto a good thing. Amelia had this habit of doing something that required Tony to drop whatever it was he was doing to come and deal with her and then once he had fixed the problem, she would go on to do something else. The last time Tony had seen his sister, he had put his foot down and told Mia that she needed to grow up and finally take responsibility of herself and her problems. It was pretty harsh but back them Mia needed some tough love. Mia hadn't responded in the most positive way hence her chucking a vase at him.

"I came here because you're my brother Tony and I didn't know where else to go, no matter what has gone on between us and all the stuff I've done. I could always count on you to be there when I needed you the most. But clearly not so much anymore as you don't want to see me Tony. Not that I blame you after what happened in Long Beach. Coming here was a mistake and I'm sorry for barging into your life yet again so I'll leave now. I guess we'll see each other in another six years. Goodbye Tony." Amelia said with a weak smile as she pulled out an envelope and placed it on Tony's desk before walking away. Tony didn't bother to watch his sister leave, instead he pulled out one of the case files from inside he desk and tried to get back to work. It was a harsh thing to do and Tony did feel kind of bad but his sister need this and Tony couldn't parent her any longer, Amelia need to live her life on her own two feet.

"Has it really been six years since you last seen your sister?" Ziva began, breaking the silence and Tony sighed, of course Ziva wasn't going to let this go anytime soon. Not that Tony could blame her.

"It's not as bad as you're making it sound, there's the annual DiNozzo sibling phone call to check in and make sure we're both alive." Tony replied with a small shrug of his shoulders, that probably wasn't normal in most families but in the DiNozzo family that was the norm. Next to nothing when it came to contact except for that one phone call. It suited them all just fine.

"When was the last time you saw her?" McGee questioned.

"Seven years ago, it was just after her grandfather on her mother's side had passed away. I came down for the funeral and stayed for a couple of days to help Mia out. We got into an argument and we both went our separate ways after and that's suited the two of us just fine. The DiNozzo's like their space and we don't get involved with each other's lives." Tony wearily replied.

"Are you going to open the envelope?" McGee asked motioning to the envelope that Amelia had left in front of Tony. "It might tell you why your sister came asking for your help.

"No." Tony gruffly replied as he moved the envelope out of his direct line of sight but his inner investigator really wanted to know what was in the envelope. But he would suppress that; it was better for both parties if he didn't get involved with his sister. Amelia wasn't a child anymore, she was grown woman and she had made it clear several times that she didn't need his help. Tony had to let her live on her own life, Amelia couldn't rely on him to always be there to fix her messes when she screwed up her life again.

"What does Amelia do for a living?"

"Publishing. She works for some company in New York and spends most of her time reading manuscripts which is kind of perfect for her. As a kid Amelia used to have her head inside a book most of the time and it was damn near impossible to get her to put a book down to do something other than reading. I used to have to bribe her to put a book down for twenty minutes so we could get an ice-cream, Mia was a real funny kid like that." Tony admitted allowing himself to chuckle as he remembered his sister when she was a small child, Mia had been a very shy and quiet child, occasionally a bit weird but always funny. Most of the time Tony had been laughing more at her than with her but it was in a nice way as she had been his goofy baby sister. The woman who had been standing in front of him a few minutes ago, was a far cry from the little sister that Tony used to know. The one who he'd be willing to drop everything for at a drop of a hat if she had so much as got a cold.

"Were you two close?" McGee asked.

"A long time ago."

"So are you really not going to help her Tony? Amelia did come all this way…" Ziva began and Tony couldn't help bit grit his jaw, it wasn't that simple as they all thought it was. Tony had tried helping Amelia over the years, several times but when he fixed one mess she somehow got herself it another. It was tiring and as much as Tony had loved his sister, it was getting too much for him. He spent more time making sure Amelia didn't get into trouble then he did living his own life and Tony didn't want to get sucked back in that. Sure it was a bit selfish but Tony had been dealing with his sister's problems for the last fifteen years.

"You don't get it, Mia is difficult, messy and getting involved with her problems is always so damned complicated."

"Isn't family always complicated?" Ziva questioned and Tony just sighed, of course the mossad officer was right and was talking from personal expericance given who her father and brother was.

Tony eyes darted back over to the mystery envelope that his sister had left on his desk and after a few minutes of staring at it, the curiosity finally got too much for him as Amelia wouldn't have come all this way for no reason. She didn't look like she had some kind of relapse although Tony would hold his breath on that one. But whatever had happened it had worked Amelia up enough that she had come all this way to personally ask for his help. Knowing he would probably regret this later on, Tony opened the envelope. Inside Tony found a diamond ring and an silver sing. Tony was pretty sure he knew what that meant but he was also quick to dismiss it as his sister would have told him if she had gotten married. So they didn't talk much but Amelia would have mentioned something like that during one of their yearly conversations. Those two items were enough for Tony to worry but it was the final item in the envelope that really made Tony's blood run cold.

It was a picture. Well actually it was a sonogram of a baby and there was a name in the corner of the sonogram read Amelia Dalgaard. Which couldn't be right as his sister's name was Amelia DiNozzo. But then Tony looked at the rings and it all fit together and there was this horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized what it all meant. Seconds later Tony picked up his desk phone and angrily started punching in his sister's phone number but it went straight to her message service.

"You complain when I don't answer your calls and now you won't answer mine? Nice going Mia! Call me back the second you get this Amelia!" Tony all but yelled down the phone before slamming it back into the receiver.

"Problem Tony?" Ziva asked.

"Yes there is a probably ZEE-VAH since I've just found out that my baby sister is pregnant!"


	2. Chapter 2

Amelia hadn't gotten back to him. Tony hadn't expected anything less as that was quite typical behaviour from his younger sister so in the end Tony had to track his sister down. It took a lot longer than expected as they were called to a case after the body of a dead marine had been found. So Tony had to focus on work but his mind couldn't help but wonder back to the sonogram that was inside the envelope that she had given him. His sister was pregnant. His baby sister was having a baby, which was actually mind blowing as Tony could remember taking care of Amelia when she was a kid and now she was having a kid. Speaking of his sister Tony had eventually tracked his sister down to the hotel in which she was staying at. At first Tony hadn't been sure that Amelia would even stay in D.C. but he had taken a guess in thinking that she would stick around for a while just in case and so now, here Tony was standing outside Amelia's hotel room waiting for her to open the door.

"Mia I know your in there as I can see your shadow under the door so open the damn door already!" Tony called out and he could practically hear his sister rolling her eyes in that skull of hers and moments the door opened and there was Amelia. Not exactly looking surprised that Tony had found her. "About time you opened the door."

"If I hadn't opened it then you probably would have kicked it down, so how did you find me Tony? I'm pretty sure you didn't ask where I was staying because I'm certain I never told you that information." Amelia questioned as Tony walked straight past her into the suite and settled himself on to a couch and Amelia shut the door before sitting down on an armchair facing her brother.

"You may not believe me when I say this but I know you Amelia. I have always known you and you will always stay at the four seasons, so it was just a matter of me going to reception and telling them that I, a federal agent needed to know what room or rather suite Amelia DiNozzo was occupying. Wait a minute… it's actually Amelia Daalgard." Tony retorted bringing up the fact that his sister was apparently married.

"On the credit card that's paying for this suite Tony but you'll be pleased to know that I'm going back to my maiden name." Amelia idly commented.

"You got married." Tony stated as he just wanted to confirm a few facts.

"Unfortunately. It is one mistake that I will never be making again in my life, I thought I could do the whole normal married thing but I can, well my husband can't seem to do it." Amelia wearily replied as a frown appeared on her face.

"And you didn't think to tell me? It just slipped your mind to tell your only brother that you were getting married?"

"I didn't think you'd care or even want to know in the slightest so I didn't bother to tell you, after all Tony when we do speak it is only after all idly small talk until one of decides we're too uncomfortable to carry on our annual phone call for much longer. Besides if I had told you that I was getting married, you would have asked unwanted questions and insisted on meeting him and running a back ground check and I didn't want you to scare him off at the time. For some reason back then I thought I could make this whole marriage thing work out." Amelia stated and Tony could hear a bit of sadness in the back of his sister's voice.

"How long ago did this happen?" Tony questioned and Amelia slowly rose from her seat and walked over to the bar.

"Four years ago. I really should have known that it wouldn't have worked out as I was only twenty six and what the hell did I know about marriage considering who my parents were?" Amelia retorted with a small scoff, talking more to herself than Tony as she went about pouring a large glass of scotch before bringing it back over to the living area and placing it on the coffee table that was between her and Tony.

"Scotch? Really Mia? After everything that happened all those years ago you're going to sit right in front of me and drink scotch like there is nothing wrong with that?" Tony demanded, unable to believe that his sister had the nerve to drink scotch in front of him like it was nothing. This was one of the things that wound Tony up about his sister, she didn't think about things like this.

"Why are you overreacting Tony?" Amelia asked with a small sigh and Tony thought that his head was going to explode as he couldn't believe his sister was asking him why the scotch issue was bothering him. This was exactly why Tony couldn't be in the same room as his sister for more than once in every three of four years, because of Amelia's flippant attitude and remarks like that.

"Overreacting? You think I'm overreacting about this? Do you not recall what happened fourteen years ago Amelia? Because I do very well. But okay, I'll refresh your memory; you were sixteen years old and tried to kill yourself by swallowing a whole bunch of pills and washing it down with dad's 20 year old scotch."

"Like you said Tony, it was fourteen years ago and a lot of things have changed then." Amelia calmly stated and Tony didn't understand why his sister was so fine about the whole matter because trying to kill yourself was a pretty big deal but Mia wasn't even batting an eyelid over the matter. Sure it happened a long time ago but it was a big deal to Tony, it was the most terrifying things that had ever happened to him and not even getting the plague had scared him as much as when his sister had tried to kill herself.

"Not the fact that you tried to kill yourself." Tony curtly pointed out and Amelia just rolled her eyes.

"Well clearly the attempt to take my own life failed seeing as I'm sitting here talking to you about it. But anyway, we're not here to talk about the past and the drink's not for me, it's for you Tony considering the fact that I'm pregnant and I'd rather not impair my unborn child's development by giving my child fetal alcohol syndrome." Amelia snapped and Tony felt sort of bad, he had jumped to the conclusion and assumed that his sister was tried to push his buttons when all she had been going was getting him a drink.

"Oh…" Tony began, awkwardly looking around before deciding to move on a bit as he already established that Amelia was married, now they needed to talk about the other thing. "So your pregnant?"

"Very much so Anthony, I've just passed the nine week mark." Amelia drily quipped and Tony had to take a large sip of the scotch to process the information.

"But how? Your only a kid Mia."

"Tony whilst you may always see me as your kid sister I am thirty years old, I'm not a child anymore and I'm not going to tell you how it happened because you're more than old enough to know how babies are made. Given the fact you like to practice quite frequently."

The idea of his sister having sex frankly disturbed Tony and he chose to move on and pulled two small objects from inside his suit pocket and placed them on the table. "Care to explain why you gave these to me this morning."

"Holden, my husband has been cheating on me for the last three months with some woman who works in his office. I'm only grateful that he wasn't sleeping with his personal assistant, anyway I found out about it last week and he told me that it was a mistake and it meant nothing and so on. But I'm not one for adultery, especially when said adultery continues the affair after finding out his wife is pregnant. I've always believed that you aren't happy in a relationship then you try and fix the problems or you just leave, you just don't cheat. So I left him and I've had my lawyer file the divorce papers." Amelia revealed pressing her fingers against her temples.

"What?" Tony demanded as he almost choked on the scotch, his sister was full of surprises today. First she turned up out of the blue, secondly there was the revelation that she not only got married without saying a word to him, but she was also pregnant and now she had left her husband with the intent on divorcing him because he cheated on her. It was a lot of Tony to handle in one day and actually made him feel bad that he didn't keep in more contact with his sister.

"Yeah. It's cliché I know but it happened so you can say I told you so already and we can be done with this part already Anthony."

"Okay I'll say it; I told you so Amelia." Tony smugly stated. "You go off and get married to some guy and don't even tell me about it or let me met him so the least I can do is vet him and see if he's good enough to marry my little sister."

"I didn't let you meet him because I didn't want my then fiancé to put off by my deranged relatives. I'll take that portion of the blame but let's remember that I'm the one whose pregnant and got cheated on here." Amelia wearily replied.

"Speaking of deranged relatives, have you told dad about any of this? Let alone spoken to him this century?" Tony questioned, if him and Amelia had a strained relationship then the relationship between Amelia and their father was, well… Even more strained. Last time Tony checked the two of them hadn't seen each other in eight years despite the fact that they both lived in New York. Although DiNozzo Sr. was unaware of this fact and who was Tony to say anything? His sister didn't want to talk to her father and that was her business although it was within good reason as their father wasn't the most reliable of frequent person in their lives.

"Don't be ridiculous, you know the only person I despise talking to more than you is dad and it's a no on all accounts except for the last one, I spoke to him two/three years ago and even then we didn't say much. Dad was on his way to the airport and I wasn't really in the mood to speak to him either, pretty sure the conversation lasted less than three minutes." Amelia replied and then the two of them fell into a comfortable yet slightly awkward silence.

"So… You said that you needed my help Mia? It's not money is it?" Tony began.

"Relax Tony, I'm not here for money so you and what remains of your trust fund can rest easy. It's not money I'm worried about, I'm fine on that front. It's everything else that I'm worried about everything else. It kills me to admit this to you but I don't know what I'm doing. I thought that I could avoid the mistakes of dad and my mom if I got married, but here I am about to get divorced. I am thirty years old, the only daughter of the two people on this planet who should not have been allowed to reproduce, let alone raise me and I am going to be a single parent. I have no idea what I'm doing, I know next to nothing about babies. The only thing I do know is that I don't want my baby to end up like me, I don't want to turn out like dad and my mom." Amelia wearily said and there was this vulnerable look in his sister's eyes that he hadn't seen in a long time, the broken look that was filled with so much uncertainty. Tony thought Amelia had dropped in to mess up his life again because she was in trouble, and whilst Amelia was in some kind of trouble. It was the far different kind of trouble that Tony wasn't expecting. She was in over her head with her personal life and so Amelia came to the only person she could; him. Amelia needed his help and Tony was sure as hell going to help her. No matter what Amelia did or the trouble she had gotten into, she was always going to be his little sister.

"Look we'll figure all of this out, you and the little DiNozzo in there don't have a thing to worry about. I figure something out…" Tony reassured Amelia, which brought the smallest of smiles to her face.

"Thank you Tony."

"Mia you're my sister, we may not get along most of the but you and the little DiNozzo are family and besides I'm liking the sound of Uncle Tony by the minute."


	3. Chapter 3

Today of all days Tony would have preferred to spending his time looking for witnesses instead of processing his current crime scene, which was the apartment of a petty officer who had been found dead. The only thing was, the petty officer has been dead for two weeks and his body had only been discovered now and the smell wasn't exactly pleasant. Tony was sure he was going to have the smell of a dead body on his persons for at least the rest of the day. Dead bodies were something that Tony was used it and the smells were something that you got used to, but not something that smelled rotten to the core. Decomposing bodies and heat we're something that definitely didn't mix. But being the ultimate profession Tony just cracked on with his work as the sooner that him and Ziva finished up in here, the sooner he could leave and take ten showers along with burning his suit,

"You know Tony, it's pretty sweet of you to be helping Amelia out during her pregnancy." Ziva commented as she continued to take pictures, it had been two weeks since Amelia had arrived in D.C. and she was still here although Amelia was still staying at the four season to Ziva's surprise. When she questioned Tony on why his sister wasn't staying with him at his apartment he merely replied that the two of them couldn't stay under the same roof.

"She is my sister Ziva, I can't exactly turn my back on her as she has no one else that she trusts enough to turn to and Mia isn't ready to go back and face her ass of a husband. Besides I practically raised Mia so her wellbeing and the wellbeing of my niece and nephew that she's carrying is important to me. Mia's got a lot on her plate at the moment with the divorce and me keeping an eye on her means that she has to remember to do the important stuff like eat as she has a tendency to forget meals when she's stressed." Tony replied as he took a picture of a broken lamp, he didn't get why everyone was so surprised why he was helping his sister. So they didn't get on much and could barely get through a conversation that didn't involve them sniping at each other but she was his sister. "And by that I'm not including the nannies, I just mean being the only family member who was actually in her life and spent time with her."

"Then why don't you get along, surely the fact that you were the only person who seemingly cared about her would strengthen your relationship." Ziva questioned.

"Ziva I'd be careful where you're going with that, you're trending deep into the darkest of DiNozzo family secrets and trust me when I say it ain't pretty." Tony murmured as the stuff with Amelia wasn't your normal family issues, Amelia had some serious issues in the past and it was a very sensitive subject.

"Tony by all accounts it seems like you care for you sister although you won't actually admit it but yet you went years claiming that you were an only child. Why?" Ziva pressed.

"It's complicated."

"Everyone's family is complicated. Trust me I should know." Ziva said referring to not only her father but also her half-brother Ari.

Sighing Tony stopped taking pictures and looked at Ziva. "Our dad wasn't the most available parent so it would just be the two of us and various nannies. But there's a few years age difference between us and by the time Mia had been born I was already being shipped off to the first of many boarding schools. Growing up we didn't see each other much; if I wasn't away at school then I was at various summer camps... I wrote to her twice a week and the nannies would read the letters to her and by the time Mia was being sent away to school I was off to college. We spent the entire summer before I left for college together and it was the longest time that we had ever spent together. Usually we just spent the holidays with each other with my dad off somewhere and that suited the two of us fine, we'd make the best of the situation. Once I left for Ohio I'd try my best to see Mia, I'd come down to see her whenever I could I even had her fly over for two weeks every summer."

"What about Amelia's mother?"

"Cynthia Baudelaire. Socialite first and foremost, divorcee and coming in at last a reluctant mother. Comes from an incredibly wealthy family and that was part of the reason my dad married her. They had a 'whirlwind' romance, marrying only nine months after my mother had passed away and a year and a half later Amelia arrived. But dear old mother Cynthia, missed the socialite lifestyle and got bored of raising two kids so she left when Amelia was two." Tony said in a rather sarcastic manner.

"She left? Just walked out on her own child…" Ziva questioned.

"Well she saw Amelia a few times a year until eventually they stopped having any contact but she did get in touch with Mia few years back, when she was twenty. Wasn't because she missed her only child but it was because Cynthia needed money because she had gone through her entire trust fund and was hoping that Mia would give her some of hers. You can imagine how well that went down…" Tony said taking a couple more pictures before pausing to laugh. "Naturally Mia refused but that mother of her's wouldn't back down but then her father died. I always thought old man Baudelaire was a bit of an old coot but apparently not. Left his daughter a nice sum to last her a few years but not as much as he left his son, Mia and the rest of his grandchildren…"

"But something happened before then right?" Ziva guessed and Tony slowly nodded his head.

"Back when Mia was sixteen and home from boarding school from the Christmas holidays, this one night I get a phone call from our housekeeper in whatever house my sister and father were currently in at the time, I can't really remember which house it was anymore…"

"What did she say?"

"That she had found Miss Amelia in the bathroom unconscious surrounded by various bottles of pills and a bottle of my father's finest scotch and that she was on her way to the hospital. She asked me I could please come as my father wasn't home and she couldn't get a hold of him... It was like the world stopped moving in that moment, I couldn't believe what I was hearing as this Mia, sure she was shy and quiet but she wouldn't do something like that. I knew my sister, so it had to be a mistake. On my way to the hospital I kept telling myself that it was a mistake, maybe Mia had an allergic reaction or something stupid like that. But I when I arrived, the doctors had just finished pumping Mia's stomach and they said that it wasn't an accident." Tony replied walking away to look outside briefly, he didn't want Ziva to see him swallow the huge lump in his throat as he thought about that night. Running into the hospital, calling out Mia's name and demanding to know what had happened. Then talking to the doctor and seeing Mia in a hospital bed, completely out of it and looking like a lost and scared child.

"Amelia tried to kill herself? Do you know why?"

"No but I can venture a guess, Mia has always been a withdrawn person just kind of stuck in her shell and having an absent brother away at school, a mother who didn't want to be a parent and a father who couldn't even be bothered to spend more than an hour with her, the various boarding schools, living in a house full of strangers... Take your pick. I tried so hard to make her feel wanted when I was home. Her mom never wanted her and our dad couldn't be asked but I also wanted a sibling, I loved having Mia and I was more of a parent to her then either of our dad or Cynthia. I worried about her, I knew the separation was hard on her as she was so young but Mia always said she was okay. She would smile at me and say that even thought we didn't see each other much all I needed to keep sending her letters and she would happy. I believed her. They had to give Mia a psych evaluation and not surprisingly they let her go, she didn't say a word to me, instead she packed her bags and went to Connecticut to stay with her Grandpa Baudelaire and got treatment there. Mia returned to school in the fall and stayed there until she graduated and then went off to college, we didn't keep in much contact after that. Then there was this incident that happened after her college graduation." Tony wearily explained.

"What happened?"

"My dad promised he would show for her college graduation but of course he didn't make it, turned up two weeks later. Mia got blind drunk and she just kept drinking then stormed out of the house and she ended up collapsing because she had alcohol poisoning. After than Mia started bouncing around Europe for a while, she came home once in a while only to get herself into some trouble that I had to get her out of. Mia was all over the place, coming and going from Europe and I tracked her as best as I could but eventually I got tired of looking for her and started moving on with my life. Then Long Beach happened and then that was the final straw for me, I told Mia that she had to straighten her life out and after that we stopped speaking apart from the annual phone call." Tony revealed with a small frown.

"Why weren't the two of you speaking?" Ziva questioned.

"Lots of reasons; dad, her running off to Europe, the suicide attempt, neither of us being around. We both wanted the other to try and make an effort when that didn't happen we both got frustrated and took it out on each other before deciding not to bother anymore… It was just easier for the both of us to not bother." Tony replied as he idly continued to examine the scene.

"Tell me this Tony, why are you so angry with Amelia about everything that happened all those years ago? You seem to care so much for her but you are angry enough to tell people that you are an only child?"

"I have no problem with taking on an armed suspect, being blown up or getting the plague but getting a phone call in the middle of the night telling me that my sister just tried to kill herself is something I have a problem with. I practically raised her Ziva, I was the one who taught her how to tie her shoes, throw a curve ball and not be afraid of the dark. I was the one who spent time with her, took her to boring museums and brought her books because I knew that was what she liked. I did all of that, I did everything I could so she wouldn't feel like she was alone and Mia went and did something like that! She was being selfish, she didn't think about what the consequences her actions would have for the rest of us; what it would do to me." Tony began in a full on ranting mood but as he got to the end, the emotion was getting a bit too much for him and his voice crackling every so slightly.

"It's not her your really angry with is it Tony? You blame yourself for what happened to Amelia." Ziva said connecting the dots together and judging his reaction she knew that she was right.

"She's my baby sister. I should have seen the signs, better yet I should have been there for Amelia so that none of this never would have happened. Of course sending her weekly letters wasn't going to be enough, she needed someone to be there with her, to show intrest in her life and tell her that she mattered. I let Mia down and because of that she thought she was alone and felt like she couldn't come to me so she tried to kill herself to escape from that pain. When Mia was born I told myself that I would be the best big brother I could possibly be and do everything I could do protect her but I failed in that Ziva, I failed to protect Mia like I promised." Tony woefully admitted. "It's easier for me to be angry with her than to live with the guilt of what happened to Mia everyday. I find it easier to be mad with her for her constant screw ups then admit that maybe I had a part to play in why she is the way she is. I refused to help her when she came to the navy yard because it became so easy for me to write Mia off but I can't do that anymore. I have a chance to do what I should have done before, help her when she really needs my help regardless of whether she asks me or not. This time I am going to be there for her no matter what…"


	4. Chapter 4

Amelia was tired and so over bring pregnant already and she wasn't even at the twelve week mark. The constant nausea was the real thing that was bothering her, she could barely keep anything down yet she had already gained four pounds. Amelia couldn't believe that she had another six and a half months of this to look forward, just thinking of that made her blanch as it sounded like something her mother Cynthia would say. Amelia literally had to shake that horrendous comparison out of her head before stuffing another cracker into her mouth. Currently Amelia was at the navy yard, sitting in the ball pen waiting for Tony to hurry up and finish already. She needed to go back to New York for the weekend to deal with some matters that Amelia would prefer to do in person and Tony insisted on coming along with her. Amelia would have preferred if he didn't but the two of them had managed to go almost a week without there being some kind of major incident between then and she would like to keep it like knew that Tony could have turned his back on her and made her trying to deal with this on her own but he hadn't. Tony had offered his help when it came to the baby and getting her life back together whilst she dealt with her divorce. Amelia really appreciated it as she knew that she had put her brother through an awful lot of crap when she was younger. Amelia wasn't proud of a lot of the stunts that she had pulled but she knew that Tony was the best person she needed at the moment, so she wanted to keep things on a civil level for as long as possible. Not to mention Tony promised not to tell that their dad that the two of them would both be in New York so Amelia found herself allowing Tony to come with her as the last thing Amelia needed in her life was their father to make a reappearance and attempt to playing the doting father and soon to be grandfather.

"Seriously Tony? If I had known that you were going to take so long I would have got on an earlier flight and you really need to do something about that aftershave of yours. It's making my gag reflex ten times worse than it already is." Amelia stated with a small frown.

"Your meaner when you're pregnant." Tony retorted

"And your getting slower as you get older, you said five minutes and I've been here for at least twenty." Amelia said narrowing her eyes at Tony before sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"Well not everyone's job involves sitting down all day reading manuscripts, deciding whether your going to publish them into a book, approving advances and writing cheques. Some of us have jobs that are physically demanding and require a lot of paperwork otherwise a killer might be set free." Tony explained and Amelia just chose to yawn, she wasn't in the mood to have a pissing match with her bother about whose job was more important.

"And how is that my problem? It was your choice to become a cop not mine but my problem will be us missing our flights and the fact that we have to pick up more crackers on the way to the airport. If you hadn't noticed I'm kind of running low here."

"Okay, I get your point! Pregnant lady in a rush." Tony said as he hurriedly finished a report, placing it on Gibbs desk before returning to his desk to grab his jacket ignoring the amused looks that both McGee and Ziva were giving him. He used to think his sister used to be a complete hard ass but it seemed like that was nothing compared to Amelia being pregnant. He was supposed to be the older sibling here but yet she was bossing him around. Normally Tony wouldn't have stood for that but Amelia was pregnant which made her more than moody than usual not to mention that she was eating more than usual and if he made her angry enough she may just eat him. Sort of like Godzilla. As Tony slid on his jacket he saw Gibbs coming down the stairs and making his way into the bull pen and he wearily looked at his sister briefly. He still hadn't got round to mentioning to Gibbs that that he had a sister. "Hey Boss… Remember how I told you that I was an only–"

"–Hey Mia." Gibbs greeted as he made his way over to the youngest DiNozzo and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Hello Jethro." Amelia replied much to the shock of Tony, Ziva and McGee and all three looked at them in shock, they had no idea that Gibbs and Amelia knew each other and judging by how they greeted each other they seemed to be on rather good terms given that Amelia had called Gibbs Jethro and Gibbs had called her Mia. Nobody called her Mia except for Tony or so that was what Tony had always thought but apparently not.

"I hear congratulations are in order."

"Depends, you talking about the divorce or the baby?" Amelia questioned and Tony was even more surprised when Gibbs actually laughed, he was clearly missing some big picture here.

"Both, how you doing?" Gibbs questioned.

"Morning sickness is a bitch, I'm nauseas all the time and stuffing these crackers down my mouth all the time to keep it at bay." Amelia quipped in amusement giving the box of crackers that she was holding a quick shake. "They never tell you that growing a human is so much hard work, they think that by just saying at the end of nine months you'll have a baby is enough to make all the problems worth it. I'm not even sure if the world is ready for another DiNozzo…"

"–Wait just one second and let's go back, you two know each other?" Tony demanded as none of this made any sense. In the three weeks that his sister had been here not once had she come across Gibbs and yet they knew each other enough that they were on first name basis and Gibbs was asking about her pregnancy and knew that she was divorced. Something did not add up here and Tony wanted to know what it was.

"Yes we do." Amelia replied as she took a bite of another cracker and Tony just rolled his eyes, he didn't need his sister to point out the obvious. He needed them to expand on that.

"But how do you know each other? No one knew that I had a sister up until three weeks ago."

"DiNozzo I've always known that you had a sister, it's in your personnel file and Amelia is listed as your next of kin." Gibbs explained and Tony probably should have realized that, but that didn't explain the whole Jethro and Mia thing. He had been working with Gibbs for several years and he wasn't allowed to call him Jethro, yet his little sister was able to call him that.

"Oh, right. That makes sense… Although that doesn't explain how you know each other as not once since I joined NCIS has my sister come down to the base once and yet the two of you know each other."

"You didn't tell him." Gibbs said to Amelia who just shook her head which just confused Tony even more, now he definitely knew that Gibbs and his sister knew something that he didn't know.

"Tell me what?" Tony demanded.

"Just over two and half years ago I was in a meeting at work when I got a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize although I did recognize the D.C area code. The person on the other end of the phone was some guy who claimed to work with you, a special agent Gibbs. This man told me that two officers would be outside my office and taking me to the airport because it was imperative that I get to D.C. as fast I could because it was about you and it was a matter of life and death. I had no idea who this man was at the time but I did what he told me to do and once I arrived in D.C I was taken to Gibbs, where he explained to me that you had caught the plague and things weren't looking too good." Amelia admitted with a sigh before taking a bite of another cracker.

"You were here?"

"Yeah…" Amelia said offhandedly as she waved her hand in a nonchalant manner. "By the way nice going Anthony, if anyone had to go and get the plague in this time and age it had to be you."

"Mia…" Tony slowly began not really sure how to begin or even what to say, he couldn't actually believe that she had come because she thought he was dying. And Tony had to admit that he had come pretty close to it that day. But Amelia had never mentioned it nor did Gibbs, in fact the two of them pretended like it had never happened. Tony couldn't believe that his sister had actually done that.

"It's no big deal Tony." Amelia said awkwardly. "Look can we get a move on please? We still need to get to the airport and check in not to mention I'm running low on crackers…"

Tony didn't want to drop it but his sister would go all pregnant Godzilla on his ass if they didn't get a move on. So the two of them left the navy yard and they sat in his car in a very awkward not to mention silence as he drove them to the airport until Tony finally had enough. He needed to ask Amelia about the whole thing, Tony couldn't just leave it. He needed to understand.

"You came all the way here when you found out I was dying…" Tony began.

"It's not you live on the opposite side of the world Tony, we only live a few hours away from each other and whilst you were dying at the time, you are in fact not dead." Amelia curtly replied.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't want to talk about it Anthony."

"Well I do Amelia." Tony demanded as he wasn't going to let his sister just idly dismiss this whole thing. "So why'd you come? We weren't exactly on good terms back then and yet you came."

"I got a call saying that you had caught the plague and could possibly die in the next few hours. Yes, the last few years we haven't exactly gotten along but you're my big brother and there was a good chance that you were going to die so of course I was going to come. How could I not come Tony? I know that I messed up a lot, I was off the rails for a while and things between us haven't been the same ever since I tried to kill myself. But I still cared. I have always cared Tony and I always will. I just never know how to really show it as apparently when two people who don't care about anyone about themselves like our father and my mother mate they produce a child that actually cares but who finds it hard to display any actual feelings." Amelia stated beginning in a rather annoyed tone of voice but changing to a softer tone of voice half way through her little speech.

"Why didn't you ever tell me this? Or come and see me when I was in the hospital?"

"I came down because I thought you were dying, I thought that my big brother was going to die but in the end you didn't die and so I thought it was best that I leave as I'm always the last person you ever want to see and if you did want to see me then you'd call. So I asked Jethro not to tell you that I was here, I stuck around for a few days whilst you were in the hospital and then I went back to New York when you had been discharged. I couldn't leave without knowing that you were okay." Amelia explained.

"That's how you and Gibbs are so friendly with each other, hence the whole Jethro and Mia name calling thing you two seem to have going on." Tony noted and Amelia smiled.

"Kind of. That's how we met but we got to talking when I'd come to the hospital. I'd never go into your room but I'd be on your floor and everyday Jethro would give me an update on how you were doing. Then it moved on from that, I knew you had been keeping a distant eye on me for the last few years so I asked Jethro if he could do the same for me. So every six months I would call Jethro and see how you were doing to make sure you weren't getting into anymore trouble that you couldn't handle like that time when you were framed for murder." Amelia quipped and Tony grimaced, he had kind of forgotten about that.

"Oh yeah… About that Mia, it was nothing…"

"Didn't sound like it at the time, it took Gibbs about twenty minutes to convince me that he was taking care of it and I didn't need to send down a good lawyer and some bail money."


	5. Chapter 5

Tony let out a low whistle as he followed Amelia around her fancy New York apartment, it was at least three times the size of his own apartment and probably cost more than he would ever make in his lifetime. It definitely cost a pretty penny, there was no doubt about that. The two of them were here because Amelia wanted to collect some personal stuff from the apartment without her hopefully soon to be ex husband being home as she was currently still avoiding him. Tony had chosen not to comment on the whole avoidance thing as he knew nothing about marriage and Amelia had every reason to avoid seeing her douche bag husband. Although Tony did kind of want to meet him so he could give the guy a piece of his mind, even though him and his sister had been rather estranged for the last few years, Amelia was still his little sister and didn't deserve to be treated the way that she had been treated. As the two of them made their way into a study Tony noticed a framed picture which had caught his eyes and wondering over to the desk he couldn't hep but pick it up. It was off and Amelia and her husband, no doubt taken on their wedding day. She looked flawless, absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress but what really caught Tony's attention was the bright smile on his sister's face. Tony hadn't seen his sister smile like that in at least ten years and he missed it, as a kid Amelia had one of those goofy grins and somehow over the years t had finished along with the kid it had belonged. But here in this photo Amelia looked happy, beyond happy. She looked happy, carefree and very much in love. A far cry from the grumpy, constantly angry and annoyed woman that was with him.

Looking at the photo Tony still couldn't believe that Amelia had gotten married and hadn't said a word to him. He always thought that despite their differences she would have called to tell him that she was getting married and wanted him to talk her down the aisle. But clearly that hadn't happened. Tony glanced over to Amelia who was currently going through the contents of a wall safe, murmuring quietly under her breath.

"Who walked you down the aisle?" Tony asked, unable to stop himself as it was something that he just needed to know. So far he hadn't pried to much into his sister's marriage as Amelia was currently at that point in her pregnancy where she would threaten to eat you if you said the wrong thing and her marriage was quite a sore point. Tony knew that his sister had hoped that her marriage wouldn't end up like her parents one but here she was about to get a divorced and become a single mother. Amelia stopped what she was doing and walked over to Tony and plucked the photo right out of his hand and Tony watched as his sister glanced at it for a few moments before placing it back on the table from where he had taken but this time she placed it face down.

"No one. I made it a point of giving of having no one to give me away but it doesn't really matter now does it? I tried the whole marriage thing and it didn't work because my husband is an asshole so I'm over it now. I just want to focus on the baby and trying to be the best mom that I can be and stop history from repeating itself." Amelia stated in a casual manner before taking another cracker from the packet she was holding and taking a bite. Since they had arrived in New York, Amelia had already made her way through an entire packet of crackers and now was halfway through her second.

"Do you ever stop eating?"

"Unfortunately not. At the rate I'm going, I would have gained about forty pounds by the end of end of this pregnancy if your niece or nephew has anything to say about it. But being pregnant gives me an excuse to eat, I can say I'm eating for two and not eating my way to a bigger waistline because my husband is a cheating bastard. The only upside to this is that the baby only seems to like me keeping down crackers, if I could eat raw cookie dough and keep it up I would eaten my weight in it already." Amelia replied allowing herself to smile and giving Tony a reassuring pat on the arm before heading back to the safe to grab some papers before closing the safe.

"Mia, are you sure your okay?" Tony questioned as his sister seemed awfully upbeat all of a sudden.

"Tony I'm twelve weeks pregnant, getting divorced, moving to D.C and preparing for a life as a single mother. I'm not okay, far from it but I'm not going to cry about the whole thing. Instead I am going to approach a bad situation the way a DiNozzo approaches any situation and that's with humour." Amelia quipped as she left the study and Tony couldn't help but laugh as he followed his sister out. For him it felt like his funny little sister was coming back after being away from a long time. Despite the fact that he hadn't been too receptive to his sister just dropping back into his life again out of the blue, Tony was glad that Amelia was back as he hadn't realized until now that he had missed her a lot over the last few years. Tony follow Amelia around the apartment, carrying around an office box for his sister because she could carry heavy things in her condition and gradually the box as filled up. It was mostly small trinkets like jewellery, some family photos along with some books. Just stuff that Amelia didn't want to leave behind and then lastly they came to the nursery. Or what was going to be the nursery. There was nothing really it in, but Tony watched as his sister picked up a silver rattle that was sitting on top a chest of draws.

"I brought this for Holden when I found out I was pregnant. I was trying to figure out how to tell him and then one day I was on my lunch break and I went past this baby store and I found myself going in. I picked up the rattle as soon as I saw it and it that moment it really sunk in that I was having a baby, that I was going to be a mom. I also picked up one of those stupid babygrows that read world's greatest daddy. I chucked it out when I was packing my bags to come to you. I had no need for it and the baby isn't here yet but Holden has been acting the furthest thing from the world's greatest dad. Even dad managed to keep his philandering eye on a leash for a while." Amelia replied with a scoff and she sighed before closing her eyes and placing a hand over her stomach.

"Mia, you okay?" Tony questioned as his sister didn't look too good anymore.

"I'm feeling nauseas again." Amelia replied with a sigh before she turned to her brother. "Can we go? I don't very much like this place anymore and I think I'm done, anything else can be shipped over to me in D.C. once I find a place."

"Sure, I'll even treat you to another box of crackers." Tony stated in an effort to cheer his sister up which managed to gain a small smile from Amelia. He knew that this was hurting his sister much more than Amelia would like to admit to anyone, including herself. But he knew he couldn't force things from her, if Amelia wanted to talk about it then she would do it when she was ready to. The two of them started making their way out of the apartment but as they reached the foyer, the front door of the apartment opened and in walked a somewhat good looking man, dressed in a cashmere jumper and khaki slacks and Tony watched as all the colour drained from Amelia's face upon the sight of him. And Tony knew why. Despite the fact that Tony had never met the man before, he knew who he was before as just under ten minutes ago Tony was looking at him in a photograph. This was the husband. The idiot moron who had the nerve to cheat on his pregnant sister. Tony didn't like him.

"Amelia…" Holden began as he made an attempt to walk towards Amelia but she just took a step backwards and repeatedly shook her head.

"Don't. Just don't Holden." Amelia firmly replied.

"How are you doing? How's the baby doing?" Holden questioned and Tony watched as his sister just tensed up and the look in her eyes, told Tony that she was really hurting. As far as he knew, this was the first time that Amelia had seen Holden since she had left him. Holden wasn't supposed to be here at the apartment, it was why the two of them had come at this time as Amelia didn't want to see her husband at the moment.

"We're both fine."

"I've been trying to get in contact with your weeks now Amelia, I've been worried sick–"

"–Well you should have thought about that before you cheated on her. It is one thing to cheat on your wife but to cheat on your pregnant wife? So you're my idiot brother in law… Have to say bro, you aren't really doing a good job of taking care of my family." Tony interrupted in a disgusted tone of voice as whilst he was no saint, he did not condone any of this.

"Oh? Holden, this is my brother Anthony, he's a federal agent and you may have heard me mention him a couple of times."


End file.
